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A week from deletion, I figure I should say a few words. It's
only fair, since I did have a blast with Carrock and the job
has finally let on so I can take an hour to really write my
heart out.
I have been mudding on CarrionFields for about 6 months. No
stranger to muds, I decided to try myself out on this infamous
place, with hordes of people on and pretty long history 
so I finally wrapped up my old mud, archived it in my memories
and devoted myself to this place.
All my life, I've played rogues. Warriors were my second choice,
spell-casters/priests the third. Starting anew at this place, I
decided to go with the gnome conjurer first, since conjies were
recommended as a good exploration class. However, I did not
realize that the advice on good exploration classes was given
by veterans who, I believe thought something like this: "knowing
all the places that I do, which class would be good to solo
them? Why, conjurers". The catch here is the fact that newbies
do not _know_ the lands to begin with. They will see an
interesting description, follow a few steps and end up in the
Whitecloak encampment The advice should have been more useful
if it went something like this: "Given that they don't know
what they're doing, which class would let them survive long
enough to flee and quaff a potion?" or "Which class would enable
them to gather some gold, to buy a potion?" or some such.
Then there is a matter of exploration policy. In my not-so-humble
opinion, exploration is not encouraged on CF. This is due to
harsh xp penalties, and as a gnome, a mage and a newbie, it was
an utter nightmare for me. But then, if you are not exploring,
you will never learn, others will (or have paid their dues with
their newbies a few years ago) and they will kick your ass. So,
people who know what they are doing will not end up in an exp
hole. People who don't know what they're doing will likely
suffer, go through several character, perhaps even leave the
mud altogether, or some such.
So, it was a classic "you're screwed if you do, and you're
screwed if you don't" case. It didn't matter, because I was in
for a thrill of exploring.
Then, a ranger slew my little gnome instantly with an ambush and... well, it got me thinking. Rangers, I never liked; here,
however, they are almost roguish, due to awe-inspiring opening
attacks and conspicuous waiting most of the time. They should
also be ok for an exploration class, because they will survive
long enough if caught at a tight spot and they are over-all
very good on their own (they actually learn parry and dodge
before warriors do, did you know that? Or, at least they did,
4 months ago). They will also never die of thirst or hunger,
have decent healing capabilities, can use staves (a big plus),
and so on.
I rolled up a ranger, ranked him up to 35th rank and... again,
got bored with the class. I've learned the under-30 ranking areas
by heart, but too many things were off-limits for me as a
forest-dweller. I didn't wish to lose bonuses on camo and waylay,
but damnit, half the good stuff I've never seen was in the
cities. So, again, you can be an awesome pkiller and a great
wanderer with a ranger, but there were artifacts that I've never
seen and that weren't in the forests...
I needed a class that would stand on its own in any environment
and a class that would require little preparation (since again,
I did not know where to obtain the preps). By this time, it's
been 2 months, I could rank blindfolded but I had no idea what
to expect in the high-ranking areas. Hm, if I were to explore
them, I'd need to catapult myself up to 40th rank. A warrior
was an obvious choice.
At this point, I spent good 2-3 days pouring over forums on
Dio's. I decided that I liked polearms. I didn't like the exp
penalties on giants, so I chose a human instead (I never did
like the gnomes after my conjurer catastrophy. Bladjix, props
for playing a polearm spec with one). That was how Carrock
came to be. By the way, the name "Carrock" comes from the name
of Beorn's observation place from "the Hobbit", in case anyone
was curious about it.
Ever since, it has been a blast. I believe it was Waskes who
inducted me (I never lacked in the RP deparment). The induction
came as somewhat of a surprise, since I followed another char
as a group-mate there. I thought about the Scions for a second,
realized that they were fresh off the design table and therefore
opened to opportunities, realized that being one would at least
let me roam the lands without the fear of Scions hunting me
and I went for it. I never regretted. It was funny most of the
time, hearing references to the Empire, even more so than
Master, crop up. I had no idea what most of them meant, but I
inferred all right. So, Iriogam, thanks for the compliment
I wuv ya too.
I ranked quickly up to 40th rank, had my share of PK victories
(pretty much won most of them), and then I hit the road block.
Exploration alone got hard, I was in the unfamiliar territory,
and still, I had no preps past the roots and the fillet. The rest
was just one long, boring travel to a hero rank, while trying to
RP a guard to any one of the mages I really liked.
The last comments
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Specs
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Polearm is a beautiful spec. Hand-to-hand is pretty much the
opposite. With the polearm, every skill you have is useful.
With the HTH spec, you pretty much used "stun" and that was it.
Everything else is either_very_ underpowered, or fails
way too often, compared to the rest of the specs, and this comes
after over 120 hours on the skill set. I guess people knew that
before I did... I don't think I can describe you my surprise
when I realized that Armand's second spec was HTH. I don't think
I've ever seen him use it (and he was a giant?). Other than
Bonjo, I can't even remember the 4th warrior who chose that spec
(Bajoi? I'm not certain).
What else is there to say? Every warrior and his mother is
chosing mace lately. That should be a clear pointer to immorts.
I've even seen arial warrior with a spec in that weapon, which
I think is sad (not because of what he chose, but because he
is forced to choose this). A little bit of balancing out would
be a good thing.
Races
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Somewhere up on the top, I wrote that I didn't like the exp
penalty on giants. Well, there is a reason the penalty is there:
Over a past month or so, I could count the number of human
warriors in hero ranges on the fingers of a blind, one-armed
butcher. Man, did it suck being one, and in a cabal where
everyone was after your ass; in a cabal where warriors really had
no powers to keep toe-to-toe with the other warriors and with
preps being further reduced (fillets are off the limits now).
In all honesty, the hero levels for me were one constant run,
with either chasing other cabals often banded together with my
group, or fleeing from other cabals chasing me. I was genuinely
surprised at my PK ratio, because I haven't lost a fight in a
long time. I guess that I reaped good and hard in the sub-40
range... Still, with all of this, I managed to delete with
CON of 15 and 30 prac sessions to spare. I will iterate again:
there is reason why so few humans are seen as warriors in the
hero range
People
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Contrary to popular belief, Scions had some great RP-ers.
Venorsh, who Carrock profoundly respected, the AP duo (Hejduk,
Tikar) which later grew to be a trio (Kanar), the rogues
(Vaustrien) and all the cool magi: Waskes, Gaenlin, Daemelin,
Reddyn and All of the Chancellors (except for dinkus who kicked
out Venorsh).
Battle: Wodrahcir, did I admire you! Sargon, I wasn't too
impressed, due to the initial decision to seek out the Lurker
with me and Waskes, but then you turned the tables entirely and
became a rager. You did amazing from that point on, though.
Sylapaseus -- similar. After being refused from the Scion, you
carried yourself damned well and took it out like a man.
Intronan -- mixed feelings. You were both bad and good, from
day to day. Armand -- like the most people, it did look fishy
to me to see you as a priest. Overall: it was funny seeing
Sylvan invokers rush with their rangers to your aid. One time
when we were raiding, in addition to them, I also spotted
Satinka -- that was the time when we decided that too much was
simply too much.
Fortess: respected Johan, most of the time. Same with Kalin
and Jubair (who worked damned well together and had the balls
to try something alone as well). I actually remembered Jubair
while I was playing that little gnome mentioned waaaaay up above.
Braiden -- I never took your comments OOCly. It was funny seeing
them from an Apostle, though. Dignity?
Tribunal: Fellicitina, I really liked you. I felt really pissed
off when people would flame you on Dio's. You didn't deserve it.
You played it to a tee. Kiapathrus, it was cool till you got
kicked out. Malcore -- too distant. Then you acted like a bastard
when one bard of battle slew me in front of you in Galadon. I
later had the honour of taking the last CON from that bard, I
think... but I still didn't like you afterwards. Zieth - average.
Orcs: I'll band all of you together. I really, really liked
you guys. Tillilare, Nazgauga, Iriogam -- it was all to easy to
produce some great RP moments with all of you.
Immorts: Had a few interactions with Thror and Valguarrnera
once said "greetings Carrock" over the Scion channel. I guess
you can't really ask more from a Dark God of Magic who viewed
warriors as a tool.
All the people with "'" in their last name: come on. It is only
fun naming your char Joe Ar'Chaera the first 100 times. There
is more to the recognition than that bloody apostrophy in the
title.
In the End
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Thanks for the blast, the knowledge I gained and the fun I had.
Before this post, I had a sembleance of a plan of things to
mention. I figure I got most of them nailed down. But, due to
the length of this, I am bound to have missed to mention a few
points and a few people -- and I don't know which one would
pain me more.
Pikes high,
Carrock
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and he was a giant?).